The present invention relates to a grinder brewer device for the grinding of coffee beans and distribution of the ground coffee to a brew basket for brewing of a coffee beverage.
Typical coffee grinding apparatus having the capability of grinding coffee beans and delivery of the resulting ground coffee either to a bag or, in the case of a combination grinder-brewer apparatus, to a brew basket employing some type of bag or basket holding device to hold the bag or basket beneath a channel communicating with the grinder. It has long been known to provide some fail-safe mechanism to prevent operation of the grinder in a grinder apparatus for the delivery of grounds to a bag. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,900,140 to Schulman et al discloses a coffee grinder that uses a contact switch that prevents operation of the grinder unless a bag is positioned beneath the grinder and further requires the operator to manually move a lever to a grinding position. U.S. Pat. 4,685,624 to Nidiffer discloses the use of a mechanically operated rocker arm that closes a normally open switch in the grinder circuit when the arm is engaged by a bag put into position beneath the grinder opening.
The industry lacks a combination coffee grinder-brewer in which the grinder and/or brewer mechanism will not operate unless the brewer basket is in position between the retaining arms for the basket. Moreover, such combination apparatus do not have the ability to make ground coffee without the brewing operation being initiated. Therefore, it is an paramount object of the present invention to provide for a combination grinding and brewing apparatus in which a grind only feature is included. It is still another important object of the present invention to provide for a combination grinding and brewing apparatus in which the apparatus is disabled from carrying out any grinding and/or brewing cycles unless the brew basket is properly positioned in the apparatus.